What Am I? Your Maid?

I am a maid. I am my own maid. I do a crummy job, but I try to clean up after myself. I am not, though, my kids' maid. But for so long I have been acting like it and not treating messes as their responsiblity. So today I snapped...not like yelled and ripped my hair out, found lying on my floor in the fetal position with an empty bottle of wine on the counter....that was a different issue. Today it came more as a lightbulb switch...then in military-like style, came the orders. "Bryson: book, jacket, backpack. Cayden: chip bag, homework, socks.... Rylan: hamper top?" Whatever. He understood. As I spent 1:45 (1 hour: forty-five minutes) cleaning the gum stuck to the clothes dryer drum, I thought that this is TOTALLY unfair. I have my own mess to clean up, and now I'm cleaning this up and I didn't even cause it. I didn't leave the gum in my pockets and I wasn't the one who washed that particular load of laundry....because I'd check the pockets, but I'm just saying, not blaming. I am a parent. I am a mother and I should be respected as a mother. The kids never really complain about picking up their stuff, so why don't I tell them to just do it all the time? Good question. Well, maybe I'm a giver, but I don't think that I am. I don't like to clean up their stuff just for the "fun" of it or because I love them. I'd love them even if I didn't pick up their stuff. I've just become lazy and inconsistent with my discipline. So ask me how it's going in a week and I'll probably tell you that I am so sick of picking their stuff up. But ask me tomorrow and I'll tell you that it's the greatest thing, I tell them to clean up their stuff and they do it. It's like magic! I've learned....that "I am the mom and I lay down the law and for today, I want you to clean up all of your mess so I can do more important things like write about you on my blog".